Entertainment

Mentos Game Lets You Punch Spider from a Recent Ad

The Mentos candy brand continues to forge its own odd path through social media marketing with its latest launch, an iOS game called Spider Swiper.

The free game, which went live on Saturday, is based on a year-old ad from BBH London that featured a guy who tries to kill a spider to appease his screaming girlfriend only to be flipped by the tiny arachnid.

A rep for the Martin Agency, the ad shop behind that and this latest effort, says the ad prompted a lot of requests by fans who wanted to duel with the spider in the ad. (Go figure.) To promote the game, the ad has been tagged with a plug to download Spider Swiper.

The game, developed by Graeme Devine, lead developer for HaloWars and Age of Empires 3, lets players fight through six classes of the mini beasts. Action in the game is created by swiping, which lets you activate an on-screen fist aimed at the spider's head.

Like other candy brands, notably Skittles, Mentos has found that a Dada-esque creative approach that makes no mention of product attributes has struck a chord with the young target audience. Mentos's recent social media efforts along those lines include the introduction of Dragee, an accident-prone holy man, and a customized Facebook app designed to help "boring" and "vain" friends.

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